Profession: artist

Moreau taught him; Rouault, Marquet and Derain were fellow-students. He befriended Signac, an important influence, and stayed with him in St Tropez, eventually quarrelling. His mentor Pissarro advised him to spend his honeymoon in London. A painting visit with Derain to the Riviera liberated his use of colour: Dufy and Vlaminck were their fellow-Fauves. He showed Rodin his drawings, took sculptural advice from Bourdelle, found Diaghilev maddening, and was photographed by Ray using a spectacle lens. Picasso and he first met at Stein’s, didn’t get on, but later became friends (as well as rivals) and exchanged paintings.

Huelsenbeck and Richter formed the main Zürich/Berlin Dada links. Tzara, Ball, Arp, Hausmann and Schwitters were other Dada colleagues. Constructivist and de Stijl connections brought friendships with Gabo, Lissitzky and van Doesburg. Soupault and Man Ray contributed to the magazine ‘G’, co-edited with Mies van der Rohe. Eggeling and he worked to bring time and movement to painting, spurred by a meeting with Busoni. Hindemith, Ernst, Cocteau, Léger, Tanguy, Duchamp, Calder and Bowles all contributed to his films. He only met Aragon a few times, but always felt in contact.

Heartfield, Dix, Schlichter and Grosz were met as a reluctant engineering student. Grosz became a close friend, encouraged him to change direction, and taught him drawing. He became an apprentice typographer in Herzfelde’s publishing business, and helped with a Reinhardt stage production. Éluard invited him to Paris after Bellmer sent him and Breton his ‘Doll’ book, and went on to collaborate with him. Ernst, Ray, Tanguy and Éluard became close friends in Paris. He corresponded with Tzara, did illustrations for Bataille, and made collaborative work with Ernst when they were interned together in wartime France.

Among other Dadaists, Huelsenbeck, Ball and Tzara were fellow-founders of the movement in Zürich, Höch a collaborator with him, and Schwitters both collaborator and close friend. He met the Delaunays in 1911, Kandinsky in 1912, and Jacob, Apollinaire, Picasso and Modigliani a couple of years later when he moved to Paris. He met Sophie Taeuber during WWI, married and worked with her, including on a café complex in Strasbourg with van Doesburg. Richter included him in his film ‘Dadascope’, Miró was a neighbour in Paris, Lissitzky another collaborator, and Kelly a visitor to his studio.

Hausmann was for a while her lover, Schwitters and Mondrian close friends — she helped Schwitters with his Merzbau, and also worked with Arp and Baader, and presented Moholy-Nagy with a photomontage for a book of his. Setting later in the Hague, Höch knew a number of de Stijl artists, but had been friends with van Doesburg from his earlier Dada connections.

Apollinaire and Picasso saw his paintings then visited him; Apollinaire became an important friend, and led him to meet Jacob, Derain, Braque, Léger and Brancusi. Tzara asked for a painting for the first Dada show: Breton included him with the surrealists. He met Carrá in a military hospital and strongly influenced him, the friendship eventually souring. Éluard visited him in Rome, where Casella and Pirandello were among a theatrical circle he mixed with. He exhibited and kept in touch with Prampolini, designed sets for Diaghilev, and wore a black tie for 25 years after his brother and comrade Savinio died.

His close friend Boccioni and he often visited the studio of Balla, an important influence. Marinetti, Carrà and Russolo were other Futurist colleagues, though he broke contact with Marinetti, alarmed at the movement’s increasing politicisation. Gris, Signac, Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Apollinaire, Romains and Fort were all met after he settled in Paris (he married Fort’s daughter, with Apollinaire — who had links with the Futurists — a witness). Valadon and Utrillo were studio neighbours. Nevinson took the train with him from London to Paris, where he and Gris were able to work unaffected by WW1.

Laurencin and Picabia were fellow-students in Paris, as Dufy had been in Le Havre (he — and Matisse — became a particularly close friend during Braque’s Fauvist period). Apollinaire introduced Braque to Picasso, his comrade-to-be in the invention and development of Cubism; they saw each other daily for a year and worked closely for five — in Braque’s phrase, roped together like mountaineers. Gris became a very close friend following WWI. Diaghilev commissioned ballet-costumes and sets from him, and Heidegger visited him in the 1950’s. He taught Picasso to grind colours, and once bought him 100 hats at an auction.